My Little Pony Costume Sew-Along – Day 6: Unicorn Horn

Did everyone have time over the weekend to catch up on their hoodie and ears sewing?

I’ve tried to keep the tutorials as simple as possible, so hopefully you didn’t have too much trouble. Still I’m sure some of you will be happy to hear that the hardest parts are officially behind us. The wings are the only piece left that may prove to be a tiny bit difficult (due to all the curves), but some of you won’t even need to make those. Today’s tutorial will also be optional for those of you who aren’t making unicorn or alicorn characters. But they’re still cute, and you can always use this pattern to add horns to unicorn or narwhal plushies later!

Knot the end of a piece of embroidery floss and thread it through the tip of the horn.

Cut another piece of embroidery floss and use it to begin stitching the base onto the horn.

I like to use a blanket stitch, but you could also use a whip-stitch or a variety of others.

Once your base is partially attached, you can begin adding your stuffing.

Continue stitching around the base until you are left with a small 3/4 – 1″ sized opening.

Wrap your original piece of floss around the horn in a spiral, pulling firmly but not too tight.

Adjust the amount of stuffing if necessary, and then secure the thread to the bottom edge.

Finish closing up the hole in the base.

You can then stitch your new horn directly onto your hoodie, or to a piece of elastic to create a headband.

I’m still trying to figure out the logistics of attaching a hair clip without the horn tilting off to one side or the other, but if anyone has an idea they think would work I’d love to hear it! So far my attempts have been quite sad, but I’ll be sure to let you know if I figure out a system that works. Trust me. You don’t even want to hear about my version involving plastic canvas and a yogurt container. 😉

Hi, I was wondering if you had figured out how to attach the horn to a clip. I'm working on a Twilight Sparkle cosplay, and I'm trying to figure out how to wear the horn with the wig. Would a clip work, or perhaps a headband, or a circle of small elastic?

Hi Pearl! Unfortunately, I haven't found a hair clip that works to my liking. If you'r cos-ing your really don't want to have to keep checking every few minutes that everything is still in place and I kept having to add extra bobbypins to help hold the clip where I wanted it. (not cute or comfortable!) If it's an option, I'd highly suggest stitching the horn directly to your wig. Just four little tacks should keep a simple horn on very well, and you can easily snip them if you need to remove the horn later. If that's not an option then elastic is probably your best bet. A thin woven or fold over elastic would be the most sturdy but they also make very thin clear elastic that will lend in more easily with your costume – it all depends on your look and character. I hope that helps get you started! Good Luck with your outfit!

I don't have the wig yet, but tacking the horn on seems like the idea. If that's not possible, I was thinking of attaching the ears (from your very helpful tutorial) to clips and the horn to elastic. Maybe that way the clips on the ears would help stabilize the horn on the elastic.

Sounds like a plan! My son's hair is too short right now for the ears to work, so we usually clip them to the horn elastic instead. It works well enough, but then a 2 year old is a bit more…rambunctious than the average cos-player. 😉

How cute! This looks like a great, simple tutorial for making my Rarity horn for a small convention I'm going to next weekend. I've seen other people use wire or even brass brads (like what's on Manila envelopes to keep them closed) to attach various types of horns to wigs, so I'll probably use that method.

I have tons of fascinators, so I looked at how they were made. I swamped out the bottom circle piece of fleece in stead for a piece of sinamay and made small fascinator base. I then hot glued two standard hair pins so now I can either pin it into a wig or straight to hair and blend hair (or wig hair) around horn so it looks like it's coming out of my head.

Thanks so much for this! I made the ears a few days ago and just finished the horn. My daughter's are thrilled. Next I'm tackling the wings. My girls will be wearing them to DragonCon in Atlanta next weekend. If anyone asks about them be sure I'll pass along your blog name.

You have definitely saved me such a headache! I've been trying for a long time to make a horn for my vinyl scratch cosplay that looked cute and cartoonish, while also being light and easy to make. Akicon is in 6 days, and thanks to you my cosplay is finally finished! I'm eternally grateful!